Beatrice II, Countess of Burgundy

Who was Beatrice II, Countess of Burgundy?

Beatrice II, Countess of Burgundy was Duchess consort of Merania. She was a member of the Swabian Hohenstaufen dynasty, the daughter of Count Otto I of Burgundy and Margaret of Blois, thereby a granddaughter of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.

She was born in 1191, younger sister of Countess Joanna I of Burgundy. From the time of her father's assassination at Besançon in 1200, she was next-in-line to the County, eventually succeeding Joanna after her death in 1205. Her uncle Philip of Swabia, German king since 1198, had ensured her Burgundian heritage.

In 1208 she married Duke Otto of Merania, a member of the Bavarian House of Andechs, by whom she had 6 children, among them Otto III and Adelaide, who would both come to succeed her after her death in 1231.